I expect you have seen some huge changes in football, which era do you prefer?
All before my time, I did go to the lane in the late 50's (8/9 years old) and Anderson was the manager.
Bloss
I enjoyed watching push and run and you needed fit players to take that style on but I suspect that the Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay and Cliff Jones team that followed found it a very demanding system to play , so It was abandoned.
When I look back on that and the slightly later era we had so many talented and skillful players such as George Eastham, Jimmy Greaves, Tommy Harmer, Bobby Charlton, Colin Bell, Denis Law, Johnny Byrne, Don Rogers etc etc . Nowadays we produce so few ball players and schemers and the domestic game has become so international the predominant factor is that footballers are athletes and sprinters first.
Some players are worth the entrance fee alone...Hazard, Silva, De Bruyne, Salah are superb as are a few others , Teams have always had a few hard me..Norman Hunter, Peter Storie and Chopper Harris who used to live near me for example but the game is far more cynical with with some players such as Hazard, De Bruyne and our Wilf Zaha Targeted.
The major problem now is that apart from six to perhaps eight team who operate at a different level all other teams struggle to build and progress because they are relegation candidates. Sunderland tempted fate every year like a floating turd without the funds or leadership and look like candidates again.